10 Easy Ways to Green Your Home

Environmental problems like climate change and air and water pollution may sometimes seem unsolvable, but there are many simple and inexpensive things you can do every day to help. The best place to start is your home. The average home in the United States causes twice as much greenhouse gas emissions as the average car, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), so there's a lot of room for improvement.

"It was the sum of billions of little actions that got us to this point," says Patrick Gonzalez, a climate change scientist at the Nature Conservancy. "It's really only the sum of a billion small solutions that will solve the problem."

Replace Your Lightbulbs

If every American household replaced just one incandescent bulb with a compact fluorescent one, the carbon savings would be the same as taking more than six million cars off the roads, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. Talk about a small change with a big impact! "We could cut our nation's electric bill by several billion dollars a year and prevent the need for two dozen power plants," says Jennifer Powers, a spokesperson for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

To maximize efficiency and savings, opt for lightbulbs approved by the EPA's Energy Star program, which have passed rigorous quality tests.

Maximize Heating and Cooling Efficiency

Heating and cooling account for roughly half of a home's energy use, on average. "Most homes have enough leaks and cracks — it's the equivalent of leaving a window open all year," says Maria Vargas, a spokesperson for the Energy Star program. To counteract this, she recommends air-sealing and insulating your home. Vargas also recommends changing the filters in your heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems regularly. Other easy tweaks? Insulate your hot water heater with a special insulating blanket and use a programmable thermostat to minimize the use of energy while you're sleeping or away from home.

Eat Local and Organic

The NRDC estimates that the average American meal includes foods from five different countries. The shipping of these foods carries a heavy burden of increased air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Buying local foods is an easy way to help the environment and your local economy. Check out the NRDC's Eat Local Web site to see what's growing near you.

Also, make an effort to eat organic foods. "Not only is there a health benefit to you and your family, but pesticide production is very energy intensive and damaging to the environment," says Powers.

Unplug Energy Vampires

You may not know it, but vampires are lurking in your home. Electronics that are left plugged in, such as cell phone chargers and computers, constantly use energy. "We suggest people in home offices plug their computers and printers into a power strip and turn the power strip off when they're not using them," says Powers. "This cuts off the vampire power that continuously leaks into the socket."

You might think a screen saver cuts down on your computer's energy consumption, but the computer is actually still running at full speed. If you can't turn your computer off completely, be sure to put it in "sleep" or "hibernation" mode.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

It's nearly impossible to overestimate the environmental benefits of reducing waste and recycling. For example, if every household in the United States replaced just one 250-count package of virgin fiber napkins with 100 percent recycled ones, one million trees would be saved, says Powers.

"You have multiple benefits from recycling paper — you not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions but you actually conserve forest ecosystems," adds Gonzalez.

Cans, bottles, computers, cell phones — anytime you recycle something, it helps reduce the amount of energy needed to produce and transport new products. It also saves space in our limited landfills.

Choose Nontoxic Products

For your own health and that of your family (pets included) and the environment, use nontoxic products whenever possible. It's a quick and easy way to keep toxins out of your home, the air, and the water. Even seemingly harmless things like flea collars can be dangerous, especially for children, "Little kids touch the collar and put their hands in their mouths — it's just a mess," says Powers.

Companies such as Seventh Generation offer a wide variety of eco-friendly products. Or you can make your own cleaners using common ingredients — white vinegar and baking soda, for instance.

Purchase Energy Star Products

According to the EPA, its Energy Star program helped prevent the equivalent of 27 million cars worth of emissions in 2007 by setting efficiency standards for more than 50 products, including washing machines, refrigerators, and televisions. "We spend about a billion dollars each year in this country powering TVs and VCRs when they're turned off," says Vargas.

Many Energy Star products cost the same as their less efficient counterparts, and those that are more expensive make up the difference in price in energy saved within less than five years.

Drink Filtered Tap Water

Once the ubiquitous sign of health-conscious and active consumers, bottled water has more recently been accused of helping to cause climate change. What happened? People realized the excessive cost in energy of creating portable plastic bottles and transporting them to stores across the nation. Also, according to the EPA, bottled water is not necessarily better for you than tap water. So switch from bottled to tap water when you can. If you don't like the taste of your local water or want to improve its health profile, the EPA provides information to help you select the best home water treatment system for your family.

Shorten Your Shower

If Americans shortened their showers by just one minute, we could save 180 billion gallons of water each year, according to the EPA's WaterSense partnership. So cut back on your shower time, even if it's just a few minutes. Want to double those savings? WaterSense says the same amount of water could be saved if people switched to efficient showerheads with flow rates of less than 2.5 gallons per minute. To determine whether you need such a showerhead, make note of how long it takes your shower to fill a bucket with a gallon of water. If it's less than 20 seconds, it's time to go for a slower-flowing showerhead.

Choose Sustainable Seafood

We've all heard that eating fish is part of a healthy lifestyle, but it's important to think about the environmental impact of our seafood selections. A surge in the demand for fish, along with factors such as habitat destruction and pollution, has severely damaged the health of our oceans. Buying seafood, whether wild-caught or farmed, from sustainable sources is one way you can eat healthfully while helping to preserve and protect our oceans. For information on choosing seafood, check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program, which provides tips and pocket guides for sustainable options.

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